“It appears that no mistake of the size or nature of Citibank’s had ever happened before… [And] faced with these circumstances, the non-returning lenders believed, and were justified in believing, that the payments were intentional. Indeed, to believe otherwise—to believe that Citibank, one of the most sophisticated financial institutions in the world, had made a mistake that had never happened before, to the tune of nearly $1 billion—would have been borderline irrational.” Furman ruled on Friday.
Furman added that the wire transfers were “final and complete transactions” and won’t be revoked. He described the mistake as “one of the biggest blunders in banking history”. However, Citigroup replied saying it “strongly disagrees” with the court decision and it will be appealing the ruling.
A Citi spokesperson said: “We strongly disagree with this decision and intend to appeal,” Tuesday. We believe we are entitled to the funds and will continue to pursue a complete recovery of them.
In fact, the wire mistake included over $893 million to Revlon’s lenders. However, after Citigroup filed several lawsuits against lenders, they were able to recover $400 million.